Featured Staff Member: Dineen Grow
What do you do at the library?
I share department head responsibilities with another staff member for the Access Services department which includes circulation, book and document delivery, stacks maintenance, registration assistance for record holds, and access to the building and security.
What is your specialty?
I am a contact person for the Madison campus for the Circulation module of the library’s catalog system. The module is used for check-out of library items to library patrons. I am also a contact person for UW System libraries to help troubleshoot when something has gone wrong with our delivery system between UW System libraries.
What brought you to your job at Memorial Library?
I started here as a student assistant in 1979 in the stacks. My very first job was vacuuming dust from books on the shelves. From 1979-1984, I worked as an LTE doing a variety of jobs within the Circulation Department. In 1984, I was hired as a permanent staff member in the position of Circulation Office Supervisor. Eight years later the position expanded to include oversight for the circulation desk, the stacks, and security.
What library resource or service would you like to recommend?
Book Retrieval is a convenient service. We pull things from shelves and have them ready for pick-up at a library of choice. This service can also be used by patrons who want to pick items up at Memorial but can’t or don’t want to go into the stacks to pull them themselves. Other handy services are e-mail notification and payment of fines by credit card. With e-mail notification, we can inform patrons that items are available for pick-up. To pay library fines, patrons need not come to the library as they can pay by credit card. While it’s a service behind the scenes, I’m also proud of how well our stacks are maintained in Memorial.
What is something about you that few people know?
I have a passion for Irish language and culture. I teach Irish through UW-Madison Continuing Studies and all over the Midwest. People find out about me through the Linguistics Department and consult with me about all sorts of things like a name they are considering for a child or even a tattoo.